The invention relates to a cabin or gondola especially for a cableway or gondola lift, running continuously in a closed circuit between a starting and an arrival station. The cabins, supported by carriages with grips, are coupled to the cable on the circuit and de-coupled or released from the travelling cable at the stations. The carriages, supporting the cabins, travel through the station at low velocity on a half-loop circuit linking the up and down tracks before being accelerated and reattached to the cable as they leave the station. Transport installations of this kind have a high conveying capacity, due to the large number of cabins running on the closed circuit and to the comparatively high velocity of movement of the travelling cable. This conveying capacity is inversely proportional to the time interval between successive cabins, which is constant throughout the entire closed loop path of the cableway. It is clear that the cabins approach much closer to one another when the cabin velocity is smaller, and that the time interval is thus limited by the low travel velocity in the station, the outline dimensions of the cabins and the necessity to travel on the curved sections without the cabins collide.
For increasing the transport capacity it has already been proposed to reduce the time interval by increasing the cabin travel velocity through the station,by approaching the cabins much closer to one another in the station, and/or by reducing the cabin width. The stepping in and out of the passengers may be dangerous when the cabin travel velocity is too high. Further the spacing between two successive cabins must be sufficient to allow, the passage of the cabins along the curved section of the half-loop circuit. When the cabin width is small the change of passengers is effected slowly.
It has been noted that the passengers entering the cabin always sit down on the seats near the door and hinder the access to the other seats. When the cableway has intermediary stations and/or when the cabin provides accomodation for an increased number of passengers, for instance six or more passengers, the seats distant from the door are often unoccupied and the actual transport capacity is thus reduced. It has already been proposed to increase the width of the cabin to allow entry into and egress from the cabin, even if passengers are seated near the door, but as already mentioned the cableway transport capacity is accordingly smaller.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cabin which permits easy passenger access even if the seats near the door are occupied, so that the cabin does not leave the station with some seats unoccupied.
A further object of the invention is to provide a cabin which may travel along the curve of the half-loop circuit without increasing the spacing or the travel velocity of the cabins. In such a case the cableway transport capacity is not reduced. Further, the embarking and disembarking sections can extend along the curve and the length of the station is reduced.